


Deathflight

by penpenhooray



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, F/M, Harry Needs a Hug, Hero Worship, Jaeger Pilot Harry, Jaeger Pilot Sirius, Jaeger Pilot Tom Riddle, Jaeger pilot Cedric, Jaeger pilot Cho, Jaeger pilot Draco, Jaeger pilot Lucius, Jaeger pilot Remus, Jaeger tech Neville, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), Kaiju (Pacific Rim), Kaiju Groupie Ron Weasley, Lots of Jaeger pilots, M/M, Mathematician Hermione Granger, Scientist Ron Weasley, That Pacific Rim AU no one asked for, Violence, but I'm sure Draco is going to get his ass kicked at some point, mainly towards kaiju
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 09:32:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5661472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penpenhooray/pseuds/penpenhooray
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the glory days of the Jaeger program, there was no Jaeger more celebrated than Deathflight, and there were no pilots with a story quite like Deathflight's pilots: orphans Tom Riddle and Harry Potter. They were the Cinderella story of Jaeger pilots, and they had the body count to show for their efforts. They were an unstoppable team behind 2500 tons of awesome.</p>
<p>But when a rogue Kaiju kills Tom in the middle of an attack, the world watched in horror as Harry Potter was forced to pilot alone. And pilot he did, saving the people of Anchorage from certain death. And while Harry was hailed as a hero, he was too traumatized to continue fighting.</p>
<p>Years pass, and Harry lives as a quiet hermit working on the stupid Wall of Life, just trying to remain a Nobody. But Marshal Albus Dumbledore has other plans, and he won't take no for an answer. </p>
<p>Deathflight needs her pilot back in order to cancel the Apocalypse, but can Harry fight his inner demon long enough to kill Kaiju, and not his fellow Jaeger pilots?.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deathflight

**Author's Note:**

> So I came across this prompt a while ago (and I'll put the link up when it's not two thirty in the morning) and I couldn't get the idea out of my head. 
> 
> Because let's face it, Harry would look good as a Jaeger Pilot.

No one thought the Kaiju would be a long term problem. Which, in hindsight, was simply foolish; how could giant monsters attacking major cities be anything but a long term problem? But, at the time, the first Kaiju had been a freak incident. The second, a coincidence. By the time the third came, and the powers that be finally pulled their heads from their asses and decided that yes, there was a serious problem, millions were already dead and civilization was at a crippling stand still.

No one thought the Jaeger program would work. It sounded like an outrageous idea: giant manned mechas with weaponry the world had never seen before. And it was outrageous; but then again, so were Kaiju.

  
After the first deployed Jaeger, _Greater Good_ , successfully killed a Kaiju that had been headed to destroy London, the Jaeger program exploded to the forefront of the world's defense force. Every pilot, every soldier worth their salt wanted into the Jaeger program and, more importantly, into a Jaeger.

  
When Tom Riddle and Harry Potter first joined the Academy, no one thought they’d make it very far. They were nobodies, two orphans destined for the slums or the service, whichever wouldn’t kill them first. They came in with nothing but the clothes on their back and chips on their shoulders. Their story was the same as half of those who arrived at the Academy, as well as left it. No one thought they’d do much.

  
It should be apparent that no one had a tendency for doing much thinking at this point.

  
Because no one had taken into consideration the strength of Tom Riddle’s ambition, nor the stalwart perseverance of Harry Potter. And, unlike the other poor unfortunate souls who tried to climb their way through the Academy’s ranks, Riddle and Potter had a very important ace up their sleeves.

  
They were drift compatible. So much so that the Academy had run blood tests to check if the two were actually blood related, as most drift compatible partners were either blood or marriage. They weren’t either.

  
In 2017, the world watched as the two nobodies were dispatched in a virgin Jaeger off the coast of San Diego to handle a Category II Kaiju nicknamed “Basilisk.” Within the hour, Basilisk was dead and leaking Kaiju Blue, and everyone knew the names of the new Jaeger team.

  
The new Jaeger was christened _Deathflight_ by its pilots, and with each recorded Kaiju kill, the pilots shot up through the ranks of heroes like a plasma cannon. The public adored the raven-haired duo, swooning over Tom’s smooth charisma and doting over Harry’s endearing innocence. They were names to be recognized, and their Jaeger near invincible.

  
At least until Anchorage three years later.

  
It was just supposed to be an ordinary run: take out a Category II Kaiju “Avada” before it got too close to shore. Nothing the two pilots hadn’t done before. But there had been an error in reporting. There wasn’t one Kaiju; there were two. Neither pilot saw “Kedavra” until its teeth were already sunk into _Deathflight’s_ head and ripping away the entire right side. Including Tom Riddle.

  
The entire base was frantic in the wake of learning of Riddle’s death as well as the fact there were two Kaiju present, with nothing but a crippled single-pilot Jaeger standing between them and innocent people. It was a race to deploy another Jaeger before more lives were lost.

  
But then the Pan Pacific Defense Corp watched in a mixture of awe and horror as _Deathflight_ began to move once more, piloted only by a young Harry Potter. There was awe as they watched the one armed Jaeger battle the twin Kaiju and emerge victorious; there was horror at the realization that the only remaining pilot would not be able to withstand the neural load of a Jaeger’s basic functions, let alone combat. By the time a rescue team could be launched, _Deathflight_ was already walking to a stretch of shore along the Alaskan coastline away from civilization.

  
The rescue crew from the remains of Deathflight face down in the tundra beach. With Harry Potter sitting calmly nearby, his helmet in his lap and staring out into the unforgiving waves of the ocean. If it hadn’t been for the twisted metal of the Jaeger, no one would have been any wiser about the fate of the Jaeger’s pilots.

  
By all accounts, Harry Potter should have either died in the Jaeger from radiation, been torn apart by the rabid Kaiju, or suffered a massive seizure and died from the neural strain of being in a one man drift with a Jaeger. But no matter what tests Medical performed, they could find nothing wrong with Potter. The only injury, only proof he had even been in the battle that cost his partner his life, was a single cut on his forehead. Harry Potter had done the impossible: piloted a Jaeger on his own to kill two Category II Kaiju, and live to tell the tale. He was a walking miracle, The Solo Pilot.

  
He resigned from the Jaeger program, and the PPDC, as soon as he had been cleared by Medical. And, at the time, no one had the heart to stop him.

* * *

 

“Boy! Make sure you bolt that plate properly! I don’t want you wasting money with shoddy work!”

  
From his perch thirty feet in the air, Harry allowed himself the luxury of gritting his teeth, “Yes, Mr. Dursley!”

  
“And don’t take all day!”

  
In the back of his mind, Harry couldn't help but roll his eyes, grateful for the distance between him and his employer. Even if Vernon Dursley could see the gesture, there was no way the obese man could hope to get to him. And that was the way Harry liked it. Though that didn't mean the man couldn't (or wouldn't) dock his pay; and as insufferable Dursley was, Harry really couldn't afford to lose any pay. Not if he wanted to pay rent that month.

  
Harry must of lost track of time, because the next thing he knew, a piercing whistle cut through the air, signaling the end of the work day. With a sigh of relief, Harry began to repel down from his welding perch. Because while Harry needed the money, he wasn't about to work overtime (mainly because Dursley didn't pay overtime). And it was always good to have his feet on solid ground again. Solid ground meant no accidents, no tragic headlines in the news. He could just picture it : "Former Decorated Jaeger Pilot Dies in Construction Accident"

  
Tom would never kept him live that down.

  
"Mister Potter."

  
Harry stopped in his movements of packing up his tools, hunched over his bag. No one called him "Mister Potter" anymore, and even when he did, there was only one who could put that level of disdain in those two words. With a sigh, he stood and turned to face the stern faced man addressing him.

  
"The world must be in a while mess of trouble if you came all the way to this hellhole to see me, Snape."

  
From across the work floor, Severus Snape glared back at him. The man was as sallow and grim looking as ever, but then again, some things would never change. Unlike the emblems decorating the breast of Snape's uniform jacket.

  
"Vice Marshal Shape, then. I suppose congratulations are in order, then." Harry muttered, the sentiment hollow. He brushed his grimy hands against his coveralls, "So who died to open up that promotion?"

  
"Moody."

  
"Damn... And here I thought nothing could kill old Madeye."

  
"A heart attack would say otherwise."

  
"Shame." In all honesty, the real shame was that Alastor "Madeye" Moody, copilot of one of the best Mark II Jaegers in her time, _Constant Vigilance_ , died of something so mundane. Harry could remember the days at the orphanage in which Tom would commandeer the one television in the shoddy building so that they could watch the live news broadcast of _Constant Vigilance_ and the the other Mark II Jaegers (not to mention _Greater Good_ before her retirement), and the two would marvel at the sheer power of the Jaegers and her pilots.

  
"That'll be us soon." Tom would always say with a level of confidence that Harry never had the will to argue with, "And we'll be better than they ever dreamed."

  
He had known that Viigilance's pilots had been forced into retirement after a blindside attack had rendered Moody blind in one eye, and both Moody and his partner Kingsley had transitioned into leadership roles in the PPDC, though it was widely known that Kingsley had made the transition much more seemlessly than Moody.

  
Then again, given with how paranoid Moody had become after his “retirement,” perhaps it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise that the man’s heart had given out from the strain.

  
“I’m surprised that Dumbledore didn't offer the job to Kingsley.” Harry muttered, picking up his bag.

  
“Kingsley is now at the UN.”

  
“From Ranger to Politician, what was Kingsley thinking?” Harry let loose a hollow laugh, “I refuse to believe that Kingsley would support that monstrosity.” He jerked a thumb back at the wall he had been working on just minutes before.

  
“If you’d watched the news, you would have known that Kingsley had voted against the Wall of Life project.”

  
“I don’t have television.” Harry replied bluntly.

  
“Obviously, why should you keep up to date with the conditions of the deteriorating world when you’re too busy living out the rest of your life as a hermit?”

  
“And there’s the Snape I know.” With a sigh, Harry hefted his bag over his shoulder and made his way to where the Vice Marshal stood, “Why don’t we skip to the part where you ask me what you’re here to ask me, so I can hurry up and say “no” and we can go back to our lives?”

  
A sneer crossed Snape’s face, “You spineless little brat. Are you really going to stand by and allow humanity to die?”

  
“I helped when I was able to!” Harry retorted, gritting his teeth, “I gave the PPDC everything I had, and then some! I gave until I couldn’t give any thing more, and then after that I lost both Tom and Deathflight. What would you have me do? I can’t pilot without a Jaeger, Snape.”

  
“They rebuilt her.”

  
“Who?” Harry frowned in confusion.

  
“ _Deathflight_. She’s operational now.” Snape gave the younger man a haughty look, “So it would appear you’re out of excuses, Mister Potter, or should I say Ranger Potter?”

  
Harry raised an eyebrow at the news, “They rebuilt _Deathflight_...it must have cost the PPDC a fortune to get him put back together. What kind of gamble are they playing at?”

  
“Not the PPDC, Dumbledore.” Snape didn’t appear too pleased with the information. No doubt he had argued against resurrecting Deathflight. “He’s the one who sent me on his behalf.”

  
“Of course he did.” Harry sighed, “I’m surprised he didn’t try and fetch me sooner...he never could leave well enough alone. What's his plan? Find me a new pilot and somehow resurrect the old glory days of _Deathflight_?”

  
“He has several recruits waiting for your arrival. They are…” The man sneered even more, if it were possible, “quite eager to test physical compatibility.”

  
“As if it were that easy.” An ugly snort escaped Harry before he could stop it, “You and I both know that he’d have more luck finding two fresh pilots who were Drift Compatible for Deathflight than a recruit that can drift with me.”

  
“He wants you. I can’t imagine why.”

  
Harry took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he remembered all the good times he had with The PPDC and his Jaeger. And the chance to have that again...it was so tempting… But as Harry exhaled, he forced himself to let those memories go, “Tell him I’m sorry, I really am, but I really can’t.”

  
With that, Harry walked away with every intention of forgetting that the conversation had even occurred, and that the offer to return had even existed, to simply--

  
“Dumbledore thought you’d say that.” Snape’s voice echoed behind him, “So he sent me with a message that he was confident you would not ignore.”

  
Harry’s footsteps froze in their path, not even ten steps away from where he left Snape. His knuckles were stark white in their grip on his rucksack.

  
“He’s calling in that favor.”

 

A low hiss escaped through Harry’s teeth as he exhaled sharply. The rucksack dropped to the concrete with a dull thud as he turned to face the older man, “Damn that meddling old man…” he muttered under his breath, “When do we leave?”

 

“Now.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry if this was so expositiony, I wanted to get the boring stuff out of the way before I started exploring the fun stuff. I'm thinking this won't be a basic "follow the movie" fic, but I might have some fun exploring this world a bit. Let me know if you have any ideas/suggestions/pairings besides what I have listed!


End file.
